Tampa Bay wasted little time in filling the Ben Bishop void, recalling goalie Kristers Gudlevskis from AHL Syracuse on Wednesday.
The recall came the day after Bishop exited Tuesday’s 4-1 win over Detroit with a lower-body injury. He appeared to get hurt making a save on Red Wings defenseman Nick Jensen, and excited at 12:14 of the opening frame.
Andrei Vasilevskiy came on in relief, and got the win.
Bishop has a long history of injuries. In 2014, he suffered a wrist ailment that knocked him out of the final week of the regular season and playoffs. In 2015, he suffered a torn groin -- which he played through -- in the Stanley Cup Final against Chicago.
Last spring, he got hurt 13 minutes into the Eastern Conference final against Pittsburgh, and missed the remainder of the series.
The big difference between those situations and this one, though, is that Bishop had some contract certainty, and was playing at a high level.
Now, he’s staring down free agency on July 1, and going through a really difficult stretch -- he’s 9-10-2 on the year with a 2.79 GAA and .907 GAA.
It’s unclear exactly how serious this latest injury is. The one saving grace for Bishop and the Lightning could be the timing -- while the Bolts do have two games left before the holiday break (Thursday versus St. Louis, Friday in Washington), they have four nights off before getting back into action on Dec. 28 against Montreal.